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rthstewart ([personal profile] rthstewart) wrote2021-01-30 02:31 pm

Three Sentence Ficathon 2021

We have now opened a new post, for new prompts! Please leave all new prompts there. You may continue to fill existing prompts here. If you didn't get a prompt filled here, feel free to post it on the new post!





Welcome to the Three Sentence Ficathon!
2 Feb. 2021 See important edit below regarding where to find unfilled prompts.


What is the 3 Sentence Ficathon?
This is an open exchange where you answer a prompt with a fic consisting of only three sentences. It's open to all fandoms and you can post and fill as many prompts as you like, as many times as you want.

What do I do first?
You can start 3SF by posting prompts! When posting a prompt please format it this way:

fandom, character(s), prompt word/sentence.

Only one prompt per comment please. So, for example,

Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi, I don't like sand."

Open ended and anthropomorphic fills are popular too, such as:

Any, Any, "I don't like sand."

or

Earth geography, sand, "I don't like humans very much, either."

What happens after that?
You answer other posters' prompts in three sentences (or more if you can't stop yourself) and fill as many prompts as you want, as many times as you wish. If you see that a prompt you loved has already been filled, go ahead and fill it again! Multiple fills of the same prompt are allowed and even encouraged! (We get really fun stories going this way).

Can I still post if I need more than 3 sentences? Or should I just abuse grammar in ways the English language never contemplated?
Yes. Yes.

But I'm not a member of Dreamwidth
No problem. You can comment anonymously or through open ID

I'm really overwhelmed by all the prompts and how much there is and how fast it goes. I can't read 1,000 prompts and fills. It's too much. 
I hear this a lot and it keeps a lot of people from participating.  The 3SF is big and it moves fast, especially at first. 
I get overwhelmed, too, and I'm hosting the thing. With 2020 and 2021 sucking so badly you don't want something that's supposed to be fun cause you anxiety.  I have a couple of suggestions for managing the 3SF volume. 
  • First, really, you don't have to read every prompt and fill on every page.  You can start at the last page of this and just go forward, or back a page or two.  It's fine.
  • You can come and go as time and energy allow, you don't have to participate the whole time, and it drops off quite a bit by mid-February.
  • Even after the 3SF and new prompting end, people fill prompts all year long.
  • You can fill an already filled prompt and you can can leave a prompt that's already been prompted before.  People do it all the time. 
Always make sure you're looking at top-level comments only, not threaded. That helps a lot. Your screen should look like this.




But shouldn't I read everything to see if someone already prompted the same prompt I want to leave if someone already filled it? 

No.  Prompt as many times as you want, as much as you want.  It doesn't matter if someone prompted the exact same prompt.  Go ahead and prompt again!

I left a prompt and no one filled it.  Can I prompt it again?
Absolutely!

Can I spread the word?
Yes, please. I generally fail at creating banners and embed codes but if you create one and make it really idiot-proof, I might be able to post and share it.  Feel free to cross-post this entry. If you create your own banners or icons, let me know and I'll share!
Please share the 3SF with your followers, friends, and any channels and comms you are active on.  I'll post on fandom calendar, Tumblr, and Twitter, but I don't have many connections in other spaces such as Discord.


How long will it go?

The 3SF closes to new prompts on February 28, 2021. The entry stays open permanently and people post fills all year long.

Are there any rules about cross-posting?
Nope, you can post wherever you want, whenever you want. A lot of folks collected their responses together and posted them on AO3 under the 3 sentence fiction tag. 3SFs are a terrific prompt for remixes and could be helpful for Yuletide bears, too.

What about spoilers, content and archive warnings, triggers, pairings, ratings, tags, and squick?
I thought a lot about this. It boils down to reader beware.  In my experience, this typically gets too big, moves too fast, and the stories are too short for content warnings and ratings to even apply. It is too big for me to moderate in this way. You should assume spoilers are fair game and that the initial poster and the responder have opted to use no content warnings or tags. This means AO3 content warnings for dubcon, violence, canon character death, underage, etc. COULD be present. I've found personally that I can skim and scroll by stuff that, from the prompt, I can tell isn't my favorite flavor of delicious cake. Use your best judgment and be prepared to skip over things that aren't your thing. In this format, the obligation is on you, the reader, to protect yourself from triggering content.
Some posters do include warnings and spoiler tags in subject lines or include spoiler space, but they don't have to do so.

Why is 3SF split among several posts?  That seems confusing.
It is confusing and we always lose momentum once we have to move to a second post. The reason is because at 5,000 comments to a single post, DW installs a human test CAPTCHA, which is a pain for users.  So, once this entry gets to the upper 4,000 comments, I open a new post.  If you've been waiting until things slow down to participate, when we open a second post is often a good place to join.

If I have questions, what do I do?

I'm rthstewart everywhere, here, Twitter, Tumblr, gmail and AO3.

A special thank you to [personal profile] conuly  .
Last year, Conuly started logging all unfilled prompts.
This year's (2021) unfilled prompts are here.
Last year's (2020) unfilled prompts are here.
Conuly asks that you not reply, as they want to be able to edit and add more prompts to the list.
Conuly does this just because they are an awesome person but should you want to write them fic in thanks, you can find a birthday wish list here.

Here is the 3SF 2021 Friending Meme to show of your new DW account.

Here, have some icons and banners and let me know if you've created your own!

 






text box you can try to cut and paste

















(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 05:50 pm (UTC)(link)
He hadn't believed he would go this way, and he hadn't believed the Recently Unemployed Officer when she had told him that the Zee was not a place for the inexperienced - all he had wanted was to show off his new beautiful, smart yacht for all love, a couple of hours on the water, no more, only to impress a few people, win a few favours, to stand at the helm with a glass of Champagne. What could go wrong, he had thought, and the answer was everything, everything had gone wrong when between two glasses of wine the lights of London had gone from a hazy glow in the west horizon to complete darkness; when they had realised that maybe using the signal flares as fireworks to illuminate their revelry had not been such a marvellous idea after all; when the Celebrated Actress's fiancé (who's soul-tearing cries of agony have now finally ceased) had in her desperation eaten from the bright mushroom garlands adorning the yacht, mushrooms both beautiful and deadly. Tonight, he knows, they are going to eat the exhausted Zee-bat, their only false hope of finding where the hell they are, and where the hell London has disappeared, and tomorrow, God help him, tomorrow he will volunteer himself.
ilthit: (Default)

[personal profile] ilthit 2021-02-04 05:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Original, any/any nb, witchcraft
ranalore: (the untamed yunmeng siblings)

[personal profile] ranalore 2021-02-04 05:54 pm (UTC)(link)
That's some beautiful, knifey imagery right there.
undeadrobins: (Default)

[personal profile] undeadrobins 2021-02-04 05:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Our boys are full of the knifiness!
ranalore: (cave fen)

[personal profile] ranalore 2021-02-04 05:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I adore this rareship, and I love that you wrote it from the Enterprise's side. Her yearning and her love come through so clearly.
ernest: (don't panic)

Re: And Then There Were None, Lombard/Marston

[personal profile] ernest 2021-02-04 06:00 pm (UTC)(link)
hee, thank you! and of course miniseries would never say he's not a dick, he's even more aware of how awful they both are and he's waiting for it to catch up to him, but he's also willing to be judgmental of hypocritical people who let it happen; "i am not the only white killer in africa" was such a good added character note!

and the marstons have to flirt with each other, he's basically "☐ Not only would I have sex with my clone, I'd probably make a bunch of clones and just get it on with all of them at once because that's how pro clone-fucking I am." (which means that book lombard has a pretty good chance of getting in on it, good for them)
undeadrobins: (Default)

[personal profile] undeadrobins 2021-02-04 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)
♥♥♥ I actually think this is the second time I've written soul-bonding fic involving Enterprise, which is a slightly worrying trend!
ranalore: (cave fen)

[personal profile] ranalore 2021-02-04 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
She's a beautiful ship, she deserves it!

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
any, any, calling them a witch is like calling the dean of medicine a back-country midwife.
ernest: (Default)

Re: Umineko, Beato and EVA Beatrice (Spoilers for Episode 3)

[personal profile] ernest 2021-02-04 06:10 pm (UTC)(link)
ooh, thank you so much! it was such a striking moment and really feels like it gets to the heart (heh) of who beatrice is, so i just had to write something about it for myself.

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Also cross-posted to my ao3
https://archiveofourown.org/works/29201325
siver: (Default)

Re: Dragons at the table? Wow, rude.

[personal profile] siver 2021-02-04 06:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh no! To be fair it doesn't take much for a swamp dragon to explode... Sybil 'burping' a dragon at tea. Vetinari's knowledge, love it :D

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Simon knows that most of the older gang-members have no great opinion of him, but greeting him with "Aren't you dead?" is a bit too much. And it is coming from Nib of all people, he never would have thought Nib would address him in such a mocking tone, as if disappointed to see him again; apparently Nib was sucking up to the big fishes and was too high and mighty now to remember who had been a friend to him for most of his worthless life. Simon clutches the bonecharm in his pocket with his bruised fingers and realises he doesn't give a shit - he'd dived in that flooded cellar to impress them, he'd almost died, but he had found his prize and he had surfaced a new man; and very soon they'll all know what he thinks of their opinion and their condescending smirks.

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 06:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Also cross-posted to my ao3
https://archiveofourown.org/works/29201325

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
For a moment, there is no indication that the Falcon will get off the ground - he hears Sabin whisper something about ten years of rust to his brother in a tone the man imagines to be discreet - but after a few seconds of terrible engine noise, the craft begins to stutter its way upwards.

Celes, as usual, is the most perceptive; he catches her gazing thoughtfully at the austere furnishings. "Darill wasn't into gambling?" she remarks, once they are truly airborne.

"Hated it," he confirms with a grin.

Re: Moreau Memories (Leverage; Eliot/Hardison/Parker)

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 06:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Oooh, this is an interesting take!!

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Oooh this is amazing! I love it

Discworld: Weatherwax

[personal profile] word_devourer 2021-02-04 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yes, I agree," said Granny Weatherwax, managing to grow steelier than usual before the exuberant girl, "altogether too compliment'ry, comparing someone with more books than experience to someone who gets it right or watches folk die."

"But that's not what I meant at all!" protested the girl, managing quite a respectable bristle despite her young age.

"Well, it's what I meant," said Granny Weatherwax, showing what age could do for a good bristle, and Nanny Ogg, though she would never have mentioned it in the face of Granny's catlike 'if you know I think good things about you, you know too much' demeanor, was silently quite pleased with the vehement defense of her profession.

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 06:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes!! This is great, I love the thought of Leia learning about the force, and the two of them sharing an even greater understanding through it!
redfiona99: (Default)

[personal profile] redfiona99 2021-02-04 06:58 pm (UTC)(link)
This is better than anything I could have hoped for. I can hear Jubilee and Wolverine :D

This is marvellous!!

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 07:06 pm (UTC)(link)
star wars, leia organa, jedi!leia

[personal profile] scrivespinster 2021-02-04 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
This is an absolutely pitch-perfect piece of creeping horror.

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you like it. Fallen London inspires such feelings, even through all the whimsy.

(Anonymous) 2021-02-04 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
There are far too many candles and the way their scents combine makes the air far too heavy to breathe, yet they are strangely comforting - in some stupid, superficial way they make it seem like he knows what he is doing, even though I know they are just candles.

"I do know what I am doing, and they are not 'just' candles; I've made them all myself and each of them has a purpose," he says and I bite my lip although I have not said anything. "Trust me," he says and to my horror I realise for the first time since I've met him that I do not trust him, that agreeing to this is a big mistake, but it is too late, he is holding my hand and I know I'll do anything.

Also cross-posted to my ao3
https://archiveofourown.org/works/29201325
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)

Leverage, the OT3

[personal profile] silveradept 2021-02-04 07:20 pm (UTC)(link)
"Goddammit, Gomez, can't family get in the door before you start fencing with them?" Eliot growled, grabbing the rapier in the umbrella stand and parrying the opening thrust.

"Pugsley," a voice floated from one of the staircases, "your basic idea is sound, but you have to build in a little latency for the wireless signals to arrive at their destinations, or you're going to spring the catapult early and you won't get to see them flail past the windows before they splash down in the moat."

Parker and Hardison exchanged grins before heading toward the source of such a delightful prospect.